Miners volleyball team wins five set playoff battle

Friday

Nov 9, 2012 at 11:24 AMNov 9, 2012 at 11:50 AM

Bill Choy

The Yreka Miners volleyball team won a five set battle 25-22, 17-25,19-25, 25-22,15-8 against Lassen in the second round of the Northern Section Division 4 playoffs Thursday night in Susanville. "Overall, just an awesome team win," head coach Scott Eastman said. After Yreka earned a 25-22 set one victory, the Miners proceeded to drop the second and third sets. Eastman said that his team, "gave me a heart attack in the middle of the match. But when we applied our system we just wore them down." In the fourth set, Yreka was down 15-11, with the season on the line. Eastman said that the squad did a great job battling back in the fourth set to force a fifth set where everything came together.The key, Eastman said, was that the girls played the way they do in practice and ran the Miners system well. "It was like the light switch came on." Eastman said. "The girls applied what they have been practicing to the match." The Miners, the No. 5 seed, and the Grizzlies, the No. 4 seed, both had first round byes. Yreka, which made the section finals last season, moves on to the section semifinals next Thursday. The Miners are set to face either No. 1 seed Sutter or No. 9 seed Orland.Eastman was pleased to see several players contribute to the win, and said it was a true team effort. "The setters played their best match of the year," Eastman said. "The defense came around in games four and five." Emily Andrus finished with 15 kills, while Ashley Ensminger had 14 kills and Justine Cota had 11 kills. Both squads split the regular season, with Yreka winning in three sets at home on Oct. 9 and Lassen winning on its home court in four sets on Oct. 25. Yreka improved to 29-7 overall while Lassen ended the season 20-4. Both teams finished the NAL season at 7-1 and co-shared the league crown. it was the first time since 1989 that the Miners earned a NAL title.

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